Not the average department store: Flickr photo of the day

Michael Clemmer

Compass•April 16, 2013

Finished in 1912 at the height of the Art Nouveau period, this glass and steel dome is the centerpiece of Galeries Lafayette. Located on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, store founders Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn hired the renowned architect Ferdinand Chanut to build a department store like no other. They in turn hired glass artist Jacques Gruber to help achieve their goal.

Photographed by Stel during the store’s centennial year, the dome, which is 130 feet in height, is just as splendorous as it was 100 years ago.